A Wednesday matinee game for Marist women’s lacrosse team against LIU brought them their first win of the season, with a score of 14-6. It was a real success for sophomore attacker Kerri Gutenberger, as she scored a monster seven goals in the victory, a career high. She extends her point total to 18 goals on the season.
“We actually had a conversation not too long ago, her and I. I just hated to see her go and then pull out as soon as she saw an opposing jersey,” Head Coach Jess Wilkinson said. “She literally was like, ‘Okay, I hear you,’ and I think she really implemented that. It was great to see her respond that way.”
The game was scoreless for the first seven minutes. The ball went back and forth to both ends of the field, until LIU’s senior midfielder Whitney Moran read and intercepted a pass from Gutenberger, before taking the ball down the other end to break into the scoring sheet.
Gutenberger had a response for her error on the next play, as sophomore defender Bella D’Garcia won the draw off the circle for the Red Foxes, they marched down to their offensive end and moved the ball around before it eventually came back to Gutenberger on the elbow. The All-MAAC Preseason selection split her two defenders and fired high-left to tie the game at one.
The Sharks were quick to bounce back, with a sharp angle goal scored by freshman attacker Brianna Tribble. Marist found the equalizer again, this time with junior attacker Kelly Trotta.
On the next draw, Gutenberger lined up on the circle and won it for her team as they marched back onto offense. She passed it off to D’Garcia, before she drew a yellow from LIU’s graduate midfielder Amanda Masullo for swinging her stick without any control. Marist did not score on their man-up advantage, and the Sharks took it the other way to run out the penalty.
Marist’s next trip down on attack, Gutenberger shot the ball wide, which was recovered by junior attacker Olivia Arnsten behind the net. She found graduate attacker Alex Di Chiara wide open in the middle to overtake the lead.
On the next draw, the Red Foxes were awarded the ball as the Sharks were given a green card on the circle. Marist went to work on offense, and Gutenberger eventually pulled the shooting space, where the ball was saved. Marist kept possession and worked it around before it wound up back in the hands of Gutenberger, who drew another shooting space call. This time she buried the ball cleanly in the top left of the cage, the same spot where it was saved a possession earlier.
Feeling the pressure, the Sharks called a timeout, but the Red Foxes kept rolling for the rest of the first quarter. Gutenberger won the draw, and carried the ball to attack to complete her hattrick in the first quarter. The score was now 5-2 Marist, the biggest lead they have had all season.
With less than two minutes left on the clock, freshman midfielder Chloe Birckhead won the next draw before dumping it off to the offense. Sophomore midfielder Delaney Hayes was saved by LIU’s senior goalie Hailey Duchnowski, and the Sharks went the other way. The last big play of the first quarter belonged to Marist senior goalie Gaby Orlando, who came up with a huge save on Masullo as time expired.
The Sharks found some life early into quarter two, after Gutenberger’s fourth goal was called back and she was given a yellow card for dangerous shot. LIU was a man-up and was awarded a shooting space that Orlando saved. Junior attacker Hannah Kenneally was wide open as she rolled the crease, to cut Marist’s lead over LIU to two.
LIU’s next offensive possession lasted two full 90 second periods due to a reset. Moran scored her second to bring it within one, but with an early pull on the draw, Marist was back in charge. They applied pressure on offense, but couldn’t put alway with a goal. LIU was stopped by two big saves by Orlando, which incited a clean transition to the Red Fox offense. With 1:30 left, Wilkinson called a time out.
After chatting, Trotta found the back of the net for her second of the game to extend her team’s lead. Going into halftime, the Red Foxes were up by two, with a score of 6-4.
Marist came out eager to continue offensively, as sophomore midfielder Hannah Spease was dumped the ball in front of LIU’s crease. Her shot went wide, but the Red Foxes recovered the ball, and with one second left on the shot clock, Di Chiara found Trotta who spun around her defender and placed it to the top corner of the net. On the next trip down to attack, Trotta found Di Chiara to make it 8-4 Marist.
The Sharks had a response in a goal from Masullo, but Gutenberger pulled another shooting space to score her fourth goal.
Both teams then went back and forth with both goalies making saves. The Sharks were called on a shot clock violation, which led to a Marist fast break, Gutenberger was awarded another free position shot that she fired past Duchnowski to regain their five goal lead.
“I think we just did an all around great job today in terms of shooting the ball a lot,” Wilkinson said. “We had a lot of shots on our offensive end, which was something that we really wanted to work on. We were finishing on some of our plays and our sets and seeing some really good drives.”
Gutenberger won the opening draw of the fourth quarter to bring the ball down on offense. Junior attacker Jillian Canner found the back of the net early, followed by Gutenberger on the next possession on another free position chance.
Arsten won the next draw, and after Duchnowski saved her shot, the Sharks could not clear. Canner caused a turnover and passed the ball to Gutenberger, who found Spease cutting through the eight-meter.
LIU took a time out and subbed Duchnowski out for sophomore Lily Biello. Gutenberger won the draw again, but Marist couldn’t find the back of the net after two shots going wide. The Sharks went the other way and caught junior defender Camryn Stoner in shooting space. Freshman attacker Ava Taylor beat Orlando to get one more point on the board.
The Sharks won the next draw, but Orlando stopped them with a huge save, sending the Red Foxes the other way. The ball found its way back into the hands of Gutenberger, who put away goal number seven on the top shelf, making the score 14-6.
“Defensively I think that we held some long sets which was really great,” Wilkinson said. “And caused some things like shot clock violations.”
The last five minutes were scoreless, as Marist’s defense kept the pressure and Orlando kept making saves. She finished with eight saves. Biello made one last save as time wound down, and as the final horn sounded, the Red Foxes ran from the sidelines to celebrate with their teammates on a quality first win.
The Red Foxes travel to Binghamton for their next game on Saturday, March 5 against the Bearcats with a 1 p.m. start time.
Edited by Bridget Reilly
Photo by Kira Crutcher via Marist Athletics